Gee's Bend quilters share their stories

By Lisa RogersTimes Staff Writer

Monday

Mar 15, 2010 at 12:01 AMMar 15, 2010 at 8:29 PM

It all started with a needle and thread for China Pettway. Long before she became part of the world-renowned quilters of Gee’s Bend, she was an 11-year-old who just wanted to help the older women who made quilts to keep their families warm.

It all started with a needle and thread for China Pettway. Long before she became part of the world-renowned quilters of Gee’s Bend, she was an 11-year-old who just wanted to help the older women who made quilts to keep their families warm.“Five or six ladies would go from house to house,” Pettway recalled. “I told my momma I wanted to help, and she let me thread the needle.”Pettway grew up in the small rural community of Gee’s Bend, in a curve in the Alabama River southwest of Selma. The land was the site of cotton plantations, primarily the lands of Joseph Gee and Mark Pettway.After the Civil War, the freed slaves took the name Pettway, became tenant farmers for the Pettway family and founded the all-black community that remained isolated from the rest of the world for years.Gee’s Bend was barely a blip on the map when the handmade quilts were discovered by Bill Arnett, a white art dealer focusing specifically on self-taught African-American artists. The quilts and the story of the Gee’s Bend quilters have been featured on many national talk shows, and some of the quilts’ images even have appeared on postage stamps.The first exhibition in 2002 was at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, in partnership with the nonprofit Tinwood Alliance of Atlanta.Pettway had a quilt at that first display.Arnett had discovered the quilts and went to Gee’s Bend to make purchases for the display.When he first went to Gee’s Bend, he went to the home of Annie Mae Young.“He was white, she was black and she was scared,” Pettway said. “Annie Mae told him about us. A lot of the ladies had old quilts they pulled out and sold. They were making artwork and didn’t know it.”Some of the ladies turned him down, but Pettway was among those who gladly sold him some of her pieces.“He was buying quilts at my mom’s, and she sent him down there to me,” Pettway recalled. “He got three of my quilts, and one is hanging on the wall in the museum. I got enough to pay the electric bill, water bill, buy clothes, fill the freezer and put money in the bank. I was blessed.”That’s an improvement from Pettway’s childhood.“We’d use old dress tails,” she said. “In those days, we didn’t have money to go to the fabric store. We used the scraps from old clothes.”She explained how they reused the thread from old quilts and stripped it down to recycle the thread.Pettway was 7 years old when she helped her older brothers pick cotton.“Who picked the most got two quarters,” she said. “A quarter was like a million dollars to us.”And the quilts, she said, were never thought of as a form of art.“We were making quilts to keep our family warm,” she said.Some of the quilts might end up stacked high on the wooden-plank floors, to make a pallet for sleeping for some of the children.In Gee’s Bend, the top — the side that faces up on the bed — always is pieced by a quilter working alone and reflects that person’s artistic vision, according to the Web site, The Quilts of Gee’s Bend. The next step of “quilting” the quilt — sewing together the completed top, the batting (stuffing) and the back — sometimes is performed among small groups of women.Pettway graduated from high school in 1972, graduated from Selma University in 1974 and from Miles College in 1976.Things have changed a lot in Gee’s Bend since Pettway was a child and even more since Arnett first visited. Pettway and her cousin, Mary Ann Pettway, are among the women in the group who often appear at speaking engagements to share the stories of the quilts. The pair recently came to Gadsden for a program at the Gadsden Public Library.“We didn’t have inside running water, electricity or indoor restrooms,” Mary Ann said. “It seemed like our community was closer then. We seemed to be talking more to the Lord then. But we didn’t feel sorry for ourselves.”There are 200 to 300 people in the Gee’s Bend community now.“Most of the children have up and gone,” Mary Ann said. “Most people have to drive 45 to 50 miles to work. We have more visitors now, but things still haven’t changed much.”Mary Ann did not begin working with the quilters until a few years ago. She had worked for years at a sewing plant until the plant closed. Then she went to work at a convenience store. She made her first quilt in June 2005.“I got paid $275,” she said. “Then I started traveling with the ladies. In 2005, in September, was the first time I ever went to a museum. I’ve been to many places I never dreamed I’d go.”China and Mary Ann do many of the speaking engagements because they are younger than some of the original Gee’s Bend quilters.Mary Ann has arthritis, and learning how to quilt has been like therapy.“I forget about the pain if I’m sitting there quilting,” she said.It’s a similar therapy for China.“I get my needle and thread and thimble, and all my problems just vanish,” she said. “We are blessed.”

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